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Are pheasants stupid? (2 Viewers)

Wells-man

the user formerly known as Ken Tone
I always thought pheasants were particularly stupid birds. I can never see how anyone can think shooting them is sport, even ignoring the moral aspect; they seem to be bred to be daft, presumably to make it easier for 'sportsmen' to shoot them.

Most winters I get one coming as a regular visitor to my garden -- a different one each year, but always quite tame, which is another reason why shooting them is no sport. Usually they fit every stereotype. They 'hide' behind a stick a fraction of their size, they run away from good hiding places squawking their heads off thereby attracting attention, they fail pathetically to understand how to get food, etc.

However this year's regular, quite distinctive with some very slight leucistic tendencies, breaks the mould. After several weeks of standing, lost, beneath the bird table feeders, picking up the scraps dropped by much smaller birds, he tried flying up. A few days then followed with him flying up often and sitting puzzled on top of the bird table roof, wondering why that hadn't worked. He looked as if he could have scratched his head, he would have done -- the image of Stan Laurel came to mind

But then a week or so ago, genius struck. He now sits beneath the feeder, gathers his strength and himself bodily 3 feet or so upwards, with his wings still tightly folded against his body, like some bird version of a punk-rocker 'pogo-ing', and headbuts the bottom of the feeder. This of course dislodges lots of seeds and nuts which fall to his feet.

Result, one very well-fed pheasant, albeit with a slight headache! ;)

Apparently they're not all stupid!

K.
 
Great thread title!

'Game' birds in their country of origin are generally more 'street-wise'....try seeing a 'real' jungle fowl!
'Bred for daftness'?.....well....some of the hunters are......[don't mention the royal family...oh buger...juz did]! Trying to be serious [juz for a minute]....red legged partridges round my way are released from a totally 'blacked out' raising shed of some sort n the poor birds often land on the nearby reservoir n drown...they are quite blind! Great 'sport'...not! Wot gets me even more tho is the feckin idiot shooters juz blast em n leave the corpses strewn about....they don't even have the decency to eat them! [ok...i'm ranting...apologies]! Have a bit of a luv/hate relationship with the hunting fraternity....'plus's and minus's'.......
[ps......beautiful birds tho eh?.....see a male pheasant against the snow in sunshine...awesome...[must stop using that word]! Respects.........
 
Oh they can be daft, I remember having a wee out birding one day, only to find several pheasants running towards me mistaking the stream for seed.
 
The Pheasant is particularly adept at inducing near heart-failure when you flush them at your feet! Trying to get their own back....? ;)
 
The Pheasant is particularly adept at inducing near heart-failure when you flush them at your feet! Trying to get their own back....? ;)


Yes, although I think Pigeons are the worst Culprits at that as they fly out of the tree as you walk under it.
 
No birds (or animals) are stupid . They do their thing for the environment they are meant to exist in. Sometimes the environment and the rules change.

Humans are stupid.
 
No birds (or animals) are stupid . They do their thing for the environment they are meant to exist in. Sometimes the environment and the rules change.

.

Dan is right......surely intelligence is a human attribute imposed by us onto animals; it's irrelevant to them. Their concerns are to eat and to reproduce. I once saw a film about an experiment to measure bluetits intelligence. The inference was that because the bluetit could perform a complex series of manoeuvres in the correct order and was rewarded with a peanut at the end of the series, he was demonstrating intelligence.......but to the bluetit all he was doing was finding food.

Similarily a working dog, say a collie rounding up sheep, seems quite clever but is it intelligence? Isn't he/she demonstrating hunting techniques, albeit in a controlled (by humans) way.
 
No birds (or animals) are stupid . They do their thing for the environment they are meant to exist in. Sometimes the environment and the rules change.

Humans are stupid.

As a human;), I would have to agree with dantheman, (!), I would say birders look on Pheasants as 'not real' and false birds in the UK. I'd best leave my ' shooters' comments, could get into trouble! ;)
 
As a human;), I would have to agree with dantheman, (!), I would say birders look on Pheasants as 'not real' and false birds in the UK. I'd best leave my ' shooters' comments, could get into trouble! ;)

I dares you Mister Anderson [Keanu].........have a go at 'shooters'!......[or wud that be goin too off thread]?;)
 
Pheasants readily learn that people often throw free snacks at them and happily get on the gravy train. On the other hand, they still haven't learned about guns. I think their natural curiosity results in highly inconsistent results, and their motiviations puzzle us, but it certainly hasn't been an evolutionary disadvantage despite the high death toll.
 
I do look at birds and wonder at times. Some starlings fighting over food on the road. Any one of them could have grabbed the whole thing and carried it off. They just pick at it, trying to get parts off of it and return for more.

Only crows seem to show a little intelligence in those food grab situations.
 
I do look at birds and wonder at times. Some starlings fighting over food on the road. Any one of them could have grabbed the whole thing and carried it off. They just pick at it, trying to get parts off of it and return for more.

Only crows seem to show a little intelligence in those food grab situations.


I always thought starlings eating by pecking in hordes was like african wild dogs i.e., eat what you can, while you can. Most of the time a starling flies off with a scrap there is usally some crow chasing after it.

Also, I don't think any animals are stupid, like was said earlier, I don't think any animals are stupid, it is just humans applying qualities to animals. Pheasents that are released from pens have no proper understanding of how to survive properly in the wild, so who could blame them.
 
Since I have absolutely no vested interests it is tempting to have a go a the 'SHOOTING FRATENITY', Absolute ******* *****, Hate them. As do most BF members, I would say. ******** the lot of them! G

Bet u feel better after that...;)

[humans: virus in shoes......];)
 
The Pheasant is particularly adept at inducing near heart-failure when you flush them at your feet! Trying to get their own back....? ;)

I'm with you there. I almost wet myself... luckily I didn't so it didn't then come running up to me.8-P
 
They also manage to make you feel quite bad about yourself. I once trod on an unseen female, she flew off at the last minute with my foot on her tail. What made it worse as she was covering newborn chicks which scattered in all directions - most of which went after her as soon as she was free - two of them ran in completely the wrong direction and I had to scoop them up and run after her to drop them nearby, then run away to let her gather her brood.
 
Actually I've also wondered how pheasants and peafowl manage to survive here in their real environment (Vietnam's forests). I can't imagine they're too difficult to catch... Maybe they are just too big for civets and other smaller predators, and there are simply not enough bigger cats around any more to eat all the pheasants?
 
are pheasants stupid

no doubt most hand reared young pheasants are like country teenagers in a big city for the first time -they have to become streetwise, and very lucky between October 1st and 31 January, but those that survive seem to know when the shooting season ends, watch the cocks in March !.
However last year there were at least 2 cases of dead or winged pheasants falling onto a shooter, and causing serious injury to the latter. bitter/sweet revenge indeed !
Rob in Sussex:-:
 
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